If your browser didn’t provide you with a warning about a site, but you still don’t feel great about sharing your information or making a purchase, you can double-check it using a site checker. A website safety checker like Google’s Safe Browsing site status page will let you know if a website is unsafe or if a previously trustworthy site has been compromised or has unsafe elements. An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a digital certificate that certifies that a website is legitimate and that it offers encryption to protect personal information and financial data. In order for a site to have an SSL, they have to prove to the issuer of the certificate that they are who they claim to be. Make checking the URL of websites you visit a common practice, especially if you got to that website from an external link. At times, the link may very similar to the real link, with only some subtle differences, such as “-book.com”.
The website should also include basic legal information, such as its terms and conditions, privacy policy, and data collection policy. If you can’t find this information, it’s likely not a legitimate company. Official retailers have a dedicated webpage detailing bitcoin set to overtake gold as a digital reserve asset 2021 their shipping and return policy. If the website you’re on doesn’t explain how to return an item, it’s a scam. If there aren’t any reviews on the site, you can run a Google search for “Is [website name/URL] real/a scam?
Look for user reviews, and check for reports of scams
While site scanners are helpful in spotting a potentially fraudulent website, not all fraudulent websites will be flagged. While you use them as an extra layer of protection, still be conscious of the sites you visit. Social media has become a hotbed of scams, hacking, and identity theft.
- All the URLs in this article (apart from the ones in pictures) have been created/invented to make some sort of point about URL scamming.
- When in doubt, contact the issuing organization for the trust mark to verify the company’s legitimacy.
- If a website looks like it was created in a day by one person, is riddled with spelling and grammar errors, and has a questionable user interface (UI), there’s a chance that you’re visiting a dangerous website.
- If there’s one thing you can always count on with online scammers is their general lack of complete attention to details.
- Official retailers have a dedicated webpage detailing their shipping and return policy.
- These sites are usually caught pretty quickly, but it’s still best to look a little harder at the padlock just to be sure.
Check for a social media presence
Scam websites masquerading as legitimate sources are a persistent threat, constantly evolving to steal your sensitive information and money. Find out the trustworthiness value of a website (powered by MyWOT) so you can gazprombank swiss launches crypto offering easily identify untrusted and potentially unsafe websites. If you switched to a new annual plan within 60 days of your initial Aura annual subscription, you may still qualify for the Money Back Guarantee (based upon your initial annual plan purchase date). ¹ The score you receive with Aura is provided for educational purposes to help you understand your credit.
If that’s the case, go back to the other steps we’ve laid out and do a bit more investigating. The site is extremely small, and for many might raise a few flags just based on overall design alone. However, a quick look shows it has some positive, trustworthy aspects, in particular, a very prominent contact phone number. The site also includes a small About section at the bottom, as well as multiple pages that how to create a btc wallet and way to make profit from it 2021 outline what they do. Award-winning identity theft protection with AI-powered digital security tools, 24/7 White Glove support, and more.
For example, most antivirus companies will accept scam website reports to include the latest scam websites in the blocklists of their software scanners. Unless you’re on an official government website to pay your taxes or a parking ticket, or on a site for paying your rent or loans, avoid direct bank transfers. Giving away your bank account number and routing number is extremely risky, even when you’re entering that information on official sites. If you can avoid submitting this type of information on a website, do so. Does bad spelling and grammar on a website mean that the site is fake? Many websites that are published in English content writers from countries where English is not spoken as a first language.
Did You Visit a Fake Website? Here’s What To Do
If a site feels a little sketchy, or if you want to make a purchase but don’t want to trust your financial information to a company you don’t know, reach out using the contact information. They may have other ways for you to make a purchase that you feel more comfortable with. If a site doesn’t have an SSL, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is unsafe. It could mean that it’s OK to browse that site, but it may not be safe to share any personal information. These warnings might say that your connection is not private or that you’re heading toward a deceptive site.
This makes staying vigilant and knowing how to spot a fake URL of paramount importance. It’s vital to remember that very few brands have websites with URLs that stray from the exact spelling of their brand name. For example, news channel CNN is not in control of any URLs that read ‘-reporting.com’ – in reality it has been, and likely always will be, Unfortunately, non-Latin characters can be used in homographic URLs, rendering spotting scam websites a more difficult process than beforehand. Some non-Latin letters are extremely similar to their Latin counterparts, so look closely.
Unfortunately, scammers have started to use SSL certificates to fool you into thinking their fake sites are genuine. If you’re unsure about a site, click on the padlock and then check any additional information about the security certificate. Unfortunately, many of these websites live only to scam you out of your personal data or money.
If it’s an online marketplace, look for a returns or refund policy
It’s probably a fake website if the company claims to be registered in the United States, but their Whois Lookup query shows that they’re in another country. VPNs reroute all your traffic through private servers, masking your IP address and enhancing your online privacy. They have a multitude of other benefits too, and there are lots of options – so check out our in-depth provider analysis to see what the best VPNs for 2024 are. However, APWG (Anti-Phishing Working Group) says that 77.6% of the phishing sites they detected in the second quarter of 2020 used SSL as their URL, a number that rose to 80% in the third quarter. This is no longer a good criterion for determining the authenticity of any given website. There are also some simple precautions you can take and some things to be aware of that go a long way to protecting yourself from these sorts of scams.
Search for user reviews and potential scams
You can check which site the certificate was issued to, who it was issued by, and its expiration date. If the certificate is valid, then you’ll see the “Certificate is Valid” text on the next menu. While online reviews may not always be the most reliable — especially with heavily curated on-site reviews — you can still learn a lot from the experiences of others. Contact information on its own isn’t a guarantee that a site is safe, but it is a signal that there is a person or a team of people who are ready to assist you if you have questions. Data submitted here is shared with security companies (terms of use). You can report the fake website to Microsoft by submitting its URL on the Microsoft Security Intelligence page.
If you examine the website’s security certificate, you see it uses a self-signed Let’s Encrypt certificate. On the same token, avoid websites that present offers in an extremely pushy way, or that use fear and scare tactics to get you to sign up. These are almost never real, and your scam meter should be going off like a bell once you read them. There’s always more to it, and quite frankly, more than you bargained for. Either way, you can’t always put your trust in the legitimacy of these marks and seals. In many cases, they’re simply images that you cannot click to bring up any verifying information.